On The Water

With many outdoor sports, the hardest part of the adventure can be getting your gear to the trailhead—or, in the case of stand-up paddleboarding, the launch point. SUP’s growing popularity (participation doubled in recent years) has inspired a boom of lakeside rental shops, but none of them make your life quite as easy as PK Paddle. The year-old business delivers, inflates, and collects boards at almost any waterway in the metro area that allows them, starting at $35 for a half-day. No shuttling your board between put-in and takeout points on the South Platte. No exhausting yourself with a pump on the shores of Chatfield Reservoir (pictured). All you have to do is show up, smile at owner Patrick Bean when he arrives, and text him when you’re done. If you’re a newbie, Bean also offers paddling pointers, and—if you ask nicely (and tip well)—will even demo some on-board yoga poses. SUP doesn’t get much more Zen than that.